Next Phase
NoRa’s Next Phase
Beginning August 1, NoRa will change our daily closing time to 5:00 PM.
To our NoRa community,
Beginning August 1, NoRa will be changing our hours of operation. We will be closing each day at 5:00 PM instead of 8:00 PM. This means the new hours of operation for NoRa will be 7 am to 5 pm daily.
This was not an easy decision. For many customers, NoRa is an evening destination – whether reading, studying or just meeting with friends. We know this change will be disappointing for many and we’re genuinely sorry about any impact to you.
The reality is that, even for a well-loved coffee shop like NoRa, the economics of running a coffee shop are challenging – especially in the afternoon and evenings. While business has been growing, our evening coffee shop hours do not generate enough revenue to cover the costs to stay open past 5 pm.
Over the past seven years, we’ve experimented with a variety of ways to make evenings at NoRa sustainable. We offer beer and wine, we’ve hosted recurring events, had game nights, family nights and a variety of one time events. Many of these activities were well attended, well-loved and often financially successful. They’ve shown us that our community enjoys many of these evening experiences.
We also learned that these experiences don’t fit particularly well within the traditional model of operating a coffee shop. They require a different business model—with different staffing, preparation, marketing, and planning than simply keeping a coffee shop open later.
After much thought, we decided rather than remaining open late as a coffee shop, we would focus on what an evening NoRa business should be.
We’ve always believed that NoRa is more than just a coffee shop. It’s about creating a place where people feel welcomed, connected, inspired and comfortable. A place that people want to go to whether by themselves or with friends throughout the day and night.
Rather than being a late-night coffee shop, we’re looking at creating an evening destination with activities, events, workshops and a variety of offerings geared to encourage the community to come together in an intentional way.
In addition to an evening-focused business, we are planning on making NoRa available for rental after the day-business closes at 5 pm. For years we’ve received requests looking for a gathering space available to our community – often wanting a space larger than what The Library alone could provide. As we evaluate what to do in the evening, we will make the entire NoRa space available for rental after 5 pm. By not having to impact our normal daily business, we will be able to provide the rental space in a way that is easier and more sustainable for NoRa than how we currently handle. Details on the rentail process we will be posted on our website in August.
As we evaluate a NoRa-evening business plan, we invite your thoughts, insights and suggestions. If you have ideas you’d like for us to consider, please e-mail them to NextPhase@noracafenc.com
We can’t promise every idea will be incorporated but we will review and consider all input. We believe the next phase will provide a variety of new ways we can engage and support our community in ways we can’t offer under our current structure.
As we work on planning, we hope you’ll continue to join us at NoRa during the day. Your support has made NoRa what it is and we’re happy you have helped us in achieving so much.
Thank you also for your understanding as we make the necessary changes for us to focus on our current strengths and identify how best to support our community in the future.
With gratitude,
The NoRa Team
